DETROIT MOTOR SHOW: Another new GM EV we won't get

It’s one of the most important General Motors models in many years, but the battery-electric Chevrolet Bolt small car is a no-go for now when it comes to right-hand drive sales and therefore a presence in Australia.

Combined with its decision not to offer the second-generation Volt plug-in hybrid, Holden’s green cupboard looks decidedly bare for now.

After breaking cover at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, the Bolt was the star of the Chevrolet presentation on Monday (US time) at the Detroit show. It will be built nearby and will go on sale later this year, initially only in the USA.

The compact five-seat hatch is a purpose-designed EV powered by a GM-developed electric motor and a lithium-ion battery pack with a new “nickel-rich” chemistry. The drivetrain pumps out 147kW and 360Nm.

All that combines for a 320km driving range and a zippy sub-seven second 0-60mph acceleration time. The optional DC charging system can provide 150km of range in 30 minutes, but a full recharge using the standard onboard charger and 240-volt service takes nine hours, says GM.

But the figure GM is really pushing the is the purchase price around $US30,000 (once US federal incentives are taken into account).

“The Bolt EV is the first EV that truly cracks the code of long range and affordable pricing,” declared GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra on stage at Detroit’s Cobo Hall on Monday.

You can read Todd Hallenbeck’s first drive impression of the Bolt EV here.

It might not be coming to Australia, but the Bolt does have a local design connection, with the Melbourne-based General Motors studio doing the design and build work on last year’s Bolt concept on behalf of the car’s GM Korea homeroom.

But that wasn’t enough to get the car into Australian showrooms – or any other RHD market for that matter.

“It's early days,” said Chevrolet chief and former Holden boss Alan Batey. “We had to look at it from a capital perspective very carefully, so we are going to go where the biggest capital opportunity is first.

“Learn and then move, learn and then move. And that is what we are really doing.”

Separately, GM global product chief Mark Reuss – another former Holden boss -- confirmed the theoretical capability of right-hand drive for Bolt.

“It’s a left-hand drive car we are showing here today, but it’s a new platform and it’s very flexible and we haven’t made any announcements on that yet,” he said.

And he threw the responsibility for Bolts ever driving on the left-side of the road back on RHD markets such as Australia.

“You need to talk to the people running the market,” Reuss told Australian journalists. “We engineer and design them and do all that and they decide what they want.”